9 Annoying Instagram Habits You Should Break

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I have a love/hate relationship with Instagram. It’s a fun social media platform that can work really well in so many ways. But it’s how some people use Instagram that can make it a bit of an annoying place to hang out.

The point of Instagram is, or was, to share creative snapshots with your followers and the rest of the world. But some users take certain Instagram habits and trends to the extreme to a point where it becomes annoying.

While I understand it’s becoming increasingly difficult to be truly original and unique in the digital world we’re living in, we should at least give it a try.

So here we go, 9 annoying Instagram habits that you should break. Yesterday, if possible.

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9 Annoying Instagram Habits

1. Pointless Comments

If you’re on Instagram then you will no doubt be familiar with those pointless, out-of-context, totally unrelated comments on your posts from accounts that have absolutely nothing in common with you.

Comments like these typically are not much more than a random emoji, or otherwise consist of just one word, such as “nice!”, or “cool!”.

There is obviously nothing genuine behind these comments and they only serve one purpose and that is to attract more followers. To make it worse, the posting of these pointless comments is often outsourced, or it is automated.

Sadly though, it works. But the reality is that the followers you may attract with this very annoying habit are not engaged followers. So while your followers count may go up, your Instagram account as a whole won’t benefit much from it.

2. The Follow Unfollow Trick

You basically follow a whole bunch of Instagram accounts (ideally smaller ones), wait for them to follow you back, and then you unfollow them a few days later.

Not cool.

3. Inspirational Quotes

If you post the occasional inspirational quote every now and then, that’s kind of okay. But please don’t overdo it. And when you do post them regularly, at least try to be somewhat original.

We can all go to Google and search for inspirational quotes. But most of these quotes have been shared millions of times already. They are being recycled every single day.

The irony is that these unoriginal motivational quotes aren’t actually motivational or inspirational at all. They are annoying.

So if you want to post motivational quotes, don’t just borrow the first one you come across on Google, but try to think of something yourself and how it relates to your life.

That’s what I would find a lot more interesting. Maybe.

4. The Duck Face Selfie

Please don’t take it too personally if you post the duck face selfie every now and then, but I just find it a tad annoying.

It’s a mystery to me why some people feel the need to pull a duck face when doing a selfie. I’m guessing it’s meant to make them more attractive, but to me it just looks rather silly.

I don’t know about you but I would much prefer to see a pretty, natural smile. But maybe that’s just the old-fashioned me.

5. Selfie Overdose

Some people love themselves, and that’s okay. Kind of.

But that doesn’t mean you should post a selfie (or multiple selfies) every single day. Even though it’s your Instagram account and you can post whatever you like, perhaps try to be a little bit less egocentric.

Try to mix it up a bit. No matter how pretty or good-looking you are, the world really doesn’t need to see your face all the time. Please?

6. Buying Followers Just to Become an Influencer

I don’t know about you, but I dislike the word “influencer”. There’s something very pretentious about that word.

On Instagram though there is a lot of money to be made if the world perceives you as a so-called influencer. And to be an influencer, you need to have followers.

There are tons of people out there who are desperate to become an influencer. Either because it can be a lucrative career move, or simply because it can brush their ego a bit.

And to speed up the process, some of these influencer wannabes resort to buying followers. But while that may work in the short term as your followers count goes up, you will eventually end up with an Instagram account that lacks engagement.

Why? Because a lot of these bought followers will be Instagram ghost followers and they are of no use. And if there is no engagement going on in your Instagram world, then you’re simply not an influencer.

7. Being a Serial Poser

This one is annoying and funny at the same time. I always need to chuckle a bit when I see someone on Instagram doing a fabricated pose, especially when they are clearly in a very uncomfortable and unnatural position.

I see it happening in real-life too. People literally spending an hour at a landmark, trying to shoot that perfect image with a wonderfully staged pose.

But do you really need to pose in every single picture on your Instagram account? Why not post the occasional picture of beautiful scenery without you in it?

8. Over-sexualized Gym Photos

It’s ok to post a photo of yourself after completing an epic workout. You’re proud of what you just did and you want to share that with your followers. Heck, you may even inspire some of them. That’s all good.

But do you need to be half naked? I don’t think so. Let’s not turn Instagram into an adult-only website please. It may help to grow your followers count, but it’s also annoying.

This over-sexualization simply isn’t necessary.

9. Posting Follow-Me-Around Photos

You must have come across those photos where a girl is holding a guy’s hand – her boyfriend, typically – and leads him around while he snaps the picture.

This used to be really cool and creative. Until everyone else started copying it.

Now it’s not cool anymore. So please come up with something different instead, and be cool again.

I could underline everything you’ve written. Mostly I hate selfies a lot, it’s so braggy, pretentious. But I wanna add something. People who comment: “Wow, nice gallery! Have a look at my gallery…” At 99% I never do this.

Hi there, I’m AJ, a corporate IT nerd turned digital marketing pro, specializing in SEO and content strategy. I am using Blog Pioneer to help you achieve success online by sharing some of my knowledge and experience.Read more…